Dabo Swinney gives passionate postgame speech after Clemson beats Louisville

It wasn’t easy for Clemson in Friday night’s game against Louisville – thanks in large part to a crucial goal-line fumble and a botched snap on a punt – but the Tigers are back to .500. Dabo Swinney was fired up, too.

Swinney gave a passionate postgame speech during his interview with ESPN’s Paul Carcaterra about how the Tigers stuck together to get the 20-19 victory. Louisville lined up for a potential game-winning field goal out of the 2-minute timeout, but the kick missed wide left. That allowed Clemson to drain more clock and ultimately seal the win on defense in the final seconds.

With the victory, Clemson improved to 5-5 on the year, and Carcaterra noted how positive Swinney was despite the sub-.500 record entering Friday. The head coach then shared why he was so proud of his group.

“The tougher it’s gotten, the closer they’ve become, the stronger they’ve gotten and the more they’ve dug in,” Swinney said. “And that’s not normal. Not in today’s world. That’s not normal. Usually, when you have some adversity, you divide. People are looking for the sideline or the training room. But not these Tigers. Not these seniors. That’s the freaking heart of a champion right there. The record don’t define you. How you respond is what defines you in everything – in life, in football and everything.

“Hey, our record ain’t what we want it to be. But we’ve got a hell of a great group of young people right there that just fought their butts off, gave every ounce of everything they had. A lot of people quit on them. There ain’t no quit in that bunch and there ain’t no quit in me.”

Dabo Swinney: ‘You get yourself up and you go fight’

The fourth quarter was eventful, to say the least. Louisville missed three field goals and Clemson turned it over on downs on the punt. But the last field goal was the most crucial miss for the Cardinals as they fell short of a late lead and eventually suffered their third loss to fall out of the ACC race entirely.

To Dabo Swinney, that final 15 minutes summed up the season as a whole. After Philip Florenzo’s snap issue on the punt, he got one more chance – and he made the most of it by helping pin Louisville deep, especially after a holding penalty.

“There ain’t nobody I believe in more than Florenzo,” Swinney said. “He didn’t know he was going back in the game, I said, ‘What are you talking about, dude? You’ve been here five years. You’re going back in the game.’ And he went out there and he threw a freakin’ dart. That’s what it’s all about.

“That’s what this season’s about. You get knocked down. It don’t always go the way you want. You get yourself up and you go fight. … You saw a team that will fight until the last second. Again, I thought Louisville played with a ton of heart, too. I love Coach [Jeff] Brohm. I think he’s done of the best guys in this business. It’s a shame for somebody to lose a game like that. Our guys have fought their tails off all year. This was a big one.”